Losing Rajasthan captain Warne’s vows to fight back

By Avishek Roy New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne said Saturday night his side would have a more formidable look after overseas players like Graeme Smith of South Africa and Dimtri Mascarenhas of England join the team. Delhi Daredevils scored a thumping win over Royals in Kotla Saturday, but Warne vowed to fight back.

“This is just the start of the tournament. We will get better as the tournament progresses. We had a young team and they do not have the experience of playing in pressure situations. Give them some more matches and they will prove themselves,” Warne said.

Warne also said that Smith, Mascarenhas and Pakistani players would join the team soon.

“The overseas players will join us next week and we will be a stronger team then. Smith is a class player and one of best openers. Mascernhas is also important for us. Pakistani players will also join the team. They will add depth to the side,” he said.

The ace leg-spinner said that seniors in the side like Munaf Patel and Mohammad Kaif will have to take more responsibility. “We are expecting more from Kaif and Munaf. They will have to stand up and show to the juniors in the side,” he felt.

He also had a take on the youngsters in his team. “The young players in the side will learn with some more matches. They have not played in such atmosphere before and give them some time to settle down. Everybody will get better in this six weeks,” he said.

“Ravindra Jadeja and Dinesh Salunkhi are talented youngster and they will come up in big way.”

Warne said that they were on the back foot right from the start of the game and could never recover from there. “We lost some wickets in the first six overs. We needed a good start but we were suddenly on the back foot. Things did not worked out for us from there on.”

Warne though gave a thumbs up to the electric atmosphere in Kotla. “It is amazing the kind of passion India has for cricket. We had a fantastic start to the IPL in Bangalore and the atmosphere there was great. There will be some bad games along with the good one’s. We need to take that in our stride. Every match will not finish in the last over.”